Weekly Blog Postingss # 2 Greenwashing

Greenwashing is everywhere we look. Companies try to make their products out to be something special, healthy, and/or safe that the regular consumer should use. Companies will try very hard to allure customers to purchase their product but a smart health consumer should know how and what to look for with greenwashing. Greenwashing is mainly designed by journalists, politicians and activists to catch the consumer’s eye but there are some things to look for to see if the products’ information was made by the government and/ or a company. These are made to know what to look for when it comes to detecting and finding greenwashing. These eight things to do are:


• Follow the Money Trail: many companies donate to political parties and other groups in the community. A few companies actually disclose their annual reports to who they exactly donate to. You, as a consumer should ask about all their donations, not just those they boast about in glossy documents, even the ones that aren’t published.

• Follow the membership trail: most companies boast about the virtues of their environmental policy and performance but hide their anti-environmental activism. Find out what industry association companies are and see what their policies are.

• Follow the paper trail: a few companies will make submissions to the government on a wide range of issues. These submissions often will be posted to a website. Ask about submissions made by the company and their lobbying on issues you are interested in.

• Look for skeletons in the company's closet: every company has major problems that it doesn't want the public to know about. Some companies include information in the annual reports about problems that have been in the past years but most often companies try to keep their problems in the dark and hidden.

• Ask for access to information: many companies will make claims about their products being in the best quality and has the best customer satisfaction. You shouldn’t always take their word. Ask around for information of history of the company. If there is something that interests you, ask to see it. If the company tells you that it is commercially confidential that is a way of corporate telling you know no.

• Ask about international consistency: most companies operate with different standards in other countries. Check to see what their operating standards are, what their procedures are and whether they opt for lower standards.

• Check how they handle their critics: some companies go to extraordinary lengths to try to silence their critics. If they do try to do this see if there were any legal battles with this company or not.

• Test for consistency over time: it is common for a company to launch a policy and then starve it of funds. Also a company might make promises when they are under public pressure but never intend on keeping them when the spotlight fades away.

Hopefully these eight things will help you as a consumer to look beyond the catchy information and promises of a product of a consumer. Hopefully you can read the lines when it comes to learning about a company’s history.

What are your thoughts on asking companies for their information? Would you be more willing to keep digging if they don’t give their information to you the first time you asked for it? Why or Why not?